This site is about everything digital, giving an update on new things as I learn

Category: Digital Content

What makes a good product? What makes a well designed product? A few years ago, I learned about design principles and how principles such as “not getting in the way (of the user)” and “content first” can drive product design. Imagine my initial confusion and intrigue, as a non-designer, when I first heard about a “design system”. Chris Messina – former designer at Uber – has come up with a useful definition of what a design system is:

“Design systems provide a convenient, centralized, and evolving map of a brand’s known product territories with directional pointers to help you explore new regions.”

Later, Messina went on to add that “Design never was just how it looks, but now it’s also how it sounds, how it speaks, and where it can go.” Apart from capturing how brand and product communicate, look and feel, a design system is also a critical component when it comes to scale. Just take this statement by Vikram Babu – product designer at Gigster – for example:

“The problem facing design today isn’t a shortage of skills or talent but that design doesn’t scale when you move from a few screens of designed components to a platform of developed patterns where adding people only complicates the problem… hence design systems.”

The key thing I learned about the value of design systems is that they intend to go beyond just a collection of design elements. Typically, companies will have a style guide. However, more often than not these style guides contain a bunch of design elements or patterns, but not create a fully comprehensive design language or tone of voice, as Nathan Curtis – owner of the EightShapes design firm – explains:

“A style guide is an artefact of the design process. A design system is a living, funded product with a roadmap & backlog, serving an ecosystem.”

This raises the question how one goes about creating a design system. Some things that I’ve learned in this respect:

What are the company values which underpin your company culture, product and service?

What problem(s) are we trying to solve through the design system? Why?

What’s the desired impact we expect the design system to have on the way we work?

Getting started

What does the current design and design look like? What works and what doesn’t? Identify the gaps.

Define some underlying design principles, which underpin a fluid and developing ‘design ecosystem’ (see Airbnb as a good example; Fig. 1 below).

Create a visual design language, which comprises a number of distinct but ever evolving components (I loved Adobe’s Nate Baldwin breakdown of some of these components; see Fig. 2 below). Common components of a visual design language are: colour, typography, iconography, imagery, illustrations, sizing and spacing.

Main learning point: It’s important for product managers to understand what a Design System is and the purposes it serves. Even if you’re not directly involved in creating or applying a Design System, it’s key to understand your company’s design language and how it applies to your product.

My quick summary of Forest before using the app – I think I first heard Nir Eyal, who specialised in consumer psychology, talk about Forest. Given that Nir mentioned the app, I can imagine Forest impacts people behaviour, helping them achieve specific outcomes.

How does Forest explain itself in the first minute? – “Stay focused, be presented” is Forest’s strap line which I see first. This strap line is followed swiftly followed by a screen that says “Plant a Tree” and explains that “Whenever you want to focus on your work, plant trees.” This suggest to me that Forest is an app which aims to help people focus on their work and eradicate all kinds of distractions.

How does Forest work? – The app first explains its purpose in a number of nicely designed explanatory screens.

After clicking “Go”, I land on a screen where I can adjust time; presumably the time during which I want to focus and avoid any interruptions.

I set the time at 10 minutes and click “Plant”. I love how, as the time progresses, the messages at the top of the screen keep alternating, from “Don’t look at me!” to “Don’t look at me!” to “Hang in there!” Nice messages to help keep me focus and not fall prey to checking my phone. At any stage, I can opt to “Give up” which presumably means that the tree that I’ve been planting – through staying focused – will be killed.

I’m motivated to see this through and plant my first tree. When I complete my 10 minutes of uninterrupted time, I expect to see a nice tree right at the end of it. Try and imagine my disappointment when I don’t see a tree but instead am encouraged to create a Forest acount

Did Forest deliver on my expectations? – I can see how Forest helps people to focus and avoid checking their phone constantly. Just want to explore the gamification element of the app a bit more.

The main driver for this app review of Blinkist is simple: I heard a fellow product manager talking about it and was intrigued (mostly by the name, I must add).

My quick summary of Blinkist (before using it) – “Big ideas in small packages” is what I read when I Google for Blinkist. I expect an app which provides me with executive type summaries of book and talks, effectively reducing them to bitesize ideas and talking points.

How does Blinkist explain itself in the first minute? – When I go into Apple’s app store and search for Blinkist, I see a strapline which reads “Big ideas from 2,000+ nonfiction books” and “Listen or read in just 15 minutes”. There’s also a mention of “Always learning” which sounds good …

Getting started, what’s the process like? (1) – I like how Blinkist lets me swipe across a few screens before deciding whether to click on the “Get started” button. The screens use Cal Newport’s “Deep Work” book as an explain to demonstrate the summary Blinkist offers of the book, the 15 minute extract to read or listen to, and how one can highlight relevant bits of the extract. These sample screens give me a much better idea of what Blinkist is about, before I decide whether to sign up or not.

Getting started, what’s the process like? (2) – I use Facebook account to sign up. After I clicked on “Connect with Facebook” and providing authorisation, I land on this screen which mentions “£59.99 / year*”, followed by a whole lot of small print. Hold on a minute! I’m not sure I want to commit for a whole year, I haven’t used Blinkist’s service yet! Instead, I decide to go for the “Subscribe & try 7 days for free” option at the bottom of the screen.

Despite my not wanting to pay for the Blinkist service at this stage, I’m nevertheless being presented with an App Store screen which asks me to confirm payment. No way! I simply get rid of this screen and land on a – much friendlier – “Discover” screen.

To start building up my own library I need to go into the “Discover” section and pick a title. However, when I select “Getting Things Done” which is suggested to me in the Discover section, I need to unlock this first by start a free 7-day trial. I don’t want to this at this stage! I just want to get a feel for the content and for what Blinkist has to offer, and how I can best get value out of its service. I decide to not sign up at this stage and leave things here … Instead of letting me build up my library, invest in Blinkist and its content and I only then making me ‘commit’, Blinkist has gone for a free trial and subscription model instead. This is absolutely fine, but doesn’t work for me unfortunately, as I just want to learn more before leaving my email address, committing to payment, etc.

I recently read “Mobilized” by SC Moatti, “an insider’s guide to the business and future of connected technology.” SC Moatti is a mobile veteran from Silicon Valley, having developed successful mobile products and services at the likes of Nokia, Facebook and Trulia. Moatti makes the book’s intentions clear in the first chapter: with businesses increasingly shifting their strategic focus to mobile, there’s a need to create a truly mobile culture and mindset within the business. To help companies become mobile first, Moatti introduces the “Mobile Formula” which contains the three rules for successful mobile products:

The Body Rule – The best mobile products operate by beauty: Contrary to what one might expect, the beauty in mobile products isn’t about aesthetics, it’s about eliminating waste. ‘Efficiency’ is the keyword here and Moatti refers to the Birkhoff formula in this respect: M=O/C. In this formula, M is a measure of beauty, O of simplicity and C of complexity. Beauty will increase with simplicity and will decrease through complexity.

Measure simplicity through the “thumb test”: Ultimately, the best measure of simplicity is to create a product that’s easy to use by everyone. The so-called “thumb test” is a great way to test whether your product is easy to use. To pass the thumb test, a task should be easily completed by a user with a thumb of average size and without incidentally hitting an unrelated link, button or design element by mistake. Take a look at AnkiDroid for instance. The flash cards on AnkiDroid’s Android app make it easy to learn words in a different language, with clear buttons and calls to actions (see Fig. 1 below).

Even the “thumb test” will become redundant (eventually): With voice command software like Apple’s Siri ,GreenOwl’s service TrafficAlert and virtual reality all being hands free, the thumb test will eventually become a thing of the past (see Fig. 2 below). Moatti argues that the principle underpinning the thumb test will still apply: beauty on mobile means that all user interactions need to work effortlessly and efficiently.

The Spirit Rule – The best mobile products give us meaning: When describing ‘meaning’ in the context of mobile products, Moatti identifies ‘personalisation’ and ‘community’ as the two key factors that add meaning. One might argue that these two factors contradict each other, but Moatti makes compelling arguments for both. Firstly, ‘personalisation’ is all about the user feeling cared for, by giving the user total control of the mobile experience. Contrary to what one might think, recent research shows that mobile products create deeper bonds between users and their communities. For example, a study by Kyung-Gook Park at the University of Florida illustrates how mobile products make people feel more connected to those around them.

Building for meaning – Mobile products as extensions of our spirit: Moatti makes some great points about the use of internal and external filters to create mobile products with meaning. Internal filters, Moatti explains, can be as simple as our location or address book. These internal filters help in connecting users to their environment; using location or user based data to create a personalised experience for the user (see example in Fig. 3 below).

External filters come into play once it’s understood what users care about through internal filters. External filters allow the experience to be shared and enjoyed with other people. For example, a privacy policy is an external filter, in place to outline what a product can and cannot reveal about its users.

The Mind Rule – The best mobile products learn as we use them: The mind rule is the final component of Moatti’s Mobile Formula. Mobile products constantly adapting is of the essence here. This adaptation can happen either fast or slow. Messaging app WhatsApp is a good example of adapting fast. The team at WhatsApp have adopted a culture of ‘continuous learning’ where they learn from users and their behaviours on an ongoing basis, adding new features constantly. This is driven by a realisation that in order to keep up with the competition, they’ll need to adapt relentlessly.

In contrast, slow learning is all about breaking new ground, focusing on new users or launching new offerings. It basically comes down to taking one’s fast or iterative learnings to the next level; creating new mobile divisions to conquer a new target market or value proposition. Whereas an existing mobile product or business might not be the best place to explore new territory, due to a fear of alienating an existing customer base, a completely separate app might be a better place to do so.

Main learning point: “Mobilized” really made me think about how to approach the creation and improvement of mobile products. Most books on mobile products concentrate on design. The great thing about SC Moatti’s book is that it focuses on the mobile user instead, and provides great insights on how to best create a great user experience.

Money remittance is big. Think Transferwise, WeSwap and World Remit; services that simplify the way in which to transfer money, offering attractive rates and a great user experience. Another good example is Azimo which I used to transfer some money to the motherland, The Netherlands:

How did Azimo come to my attention? – A few months ago I listened to an episode of the “Breaking Banks” podcast in which Marta Krupinska – co-founder of Azimo – explained what led her to start Azimo. I loved her story how she’d fly and back forth between Poland and the UK ‘strapped for cash’ because the exchange rates and commission fees weren’t great.

My quick summary of Azimo (before using it) – I expect a service similar to the aforementioned TransferWise and World Remit. I would imagine that Azimo will cover a multitude of currencies.

How does Azimo explain itself in the first minute? – “Send Worldwide” is what it says on the welcome screen when I open the Azimo app in iOS. The strap line below it reads: “Transfer money to over 200 countries, in over 70 countries, in minutes” (see Fig. 1 below).

Getting started, what’s the process like (1)? – Creating an Azimo account feels very straightforward. The only thing I’m curious is about is the 5-digit pin I need to create – in addition to my password. I imagine that this for security reasons, but it doesn’t become apparent to me straight away.

Getting started, what’s the process like (2)? – I feel encouraged when I land on a screen that promises that I can send money in 3 easy steps (see Fig. 2 below). I like that as soon as I start typing the name of the country that I want to send money to, the list of applicable countries starts appearing automatically (see Fig. 3 below). I know that this isn’t a groundbreaking feature, but simple things do help to make the overall user experience feel very intuitive. However, once I’ve chosen The Netherlands as the country that I want to send money, I’m slightly thrown by the screen that I then land on (see Fig. 4 below): I’m not clear why under “currencies” it gives me Euros and Dollars as options, nor I’m clear about what “SWIFT” entails as a ‘Delivery’ option. I know that mobile interfaces come with certain restrictions, but it would be helpful to provide users with some explanatory text, even if it’s just to reassure the user.

Getting started, what’s the process like (3)? – I feel I’m getting close, but then I learn that I have to provide an IBAN code for the account that I want to transfer money to. By the time I come back to the app with my IBAN code – 5 minutes later – I seem to have lost the data that I’d entered previously and I’m back at square one. I wonder whether this is down to simple user error or some security issue that has thrown me out of the standard user journey. I believe it would be good to include upfront the information a user needs to have to have in order to transfer money. Also, a progress bar or some indicator of time or steps left remaining would really help in guiding the user through the process.

Did the app deliver on my expectations? – It did, but I by the time I eventually completed the transaction I felt that the journey could have been even more intuitive; e.g. understanding upfront the bank/account details I need to provide and a better indication of user progress. Even though the overall experience could be improved in certain areas, I was happy with the outcome; payout into my Dutch account happened speedily and I was happy with the exchange rate and the fees that I had to pay.

I like cars. I like marketplaces. I worked at carwow. It’s fair to say that cars and marketplaces is a good combination for me. I was therefore very excited when I came across Carspring, a UK based marketplace for used cars. My initial thought was “why do we need another platform for selling and buying new cars, we’ve already got loads of those!.” However, I then looked into Carspring and this is what I learned:

My quick summary of the site (before using it): Another site where I can buy or sell used cars. Given that lots of people in the UK own a car, there are currently about 40 million cars on the UK roads, I’m not surprised to see another player enter the market for used cars.

How does the site explain itself in the first minute? – “A car for every journey” is what it says at the top of Carspring’s homepage. The strapline below that intrigues me though: “Hand-inspected, personally delivered.” This suggest to me that Carspring does more than just being an intermediary which connects buyers and sellers. It gets really interesting when I scroll down the homepage and see a section titled “How it works”:

Choose a Carspring certified and inspected car – Carspring guarantees that all the cars on their site will have gone through a 128 point inspection by the AA and an additional inspection by Carspring’s in-house team before they arrive at the customer.

Select a payment method (finance or buy) – Interesting to see that customers can apply for financing through Carspring, given that this service is heavily regulated.

We deliver the car straight to your doorstep – This reminds me of Shift, a US based online platform for used cars which also does delivers cars to your doorstep. I listened to a talk by Minnie Ingersoll, coo-founder and COO at Shift talking about door to door delivery of cars to their customers.

Relax with our 14-day money back guarantee – Especially when it comes to buying a used car, I can imagine that customers will feel reassured by Carspring’s 14-day money back guarantee.

Getting started, what’s the process like (1)? – After I’ve clicked the “Show all cars” button on the homepage, I land on a page which features a list of cars, with the top of the page saying “162 results.” I can see a “Sell a car” call to action in the top right hand of the page, which in my view could be more prominent in order to encourage more people to sell their cars through Carspring. There seem to be a number of cars that are “Coming soon” but I’m unsure as to when these cars will actually become available for sale. I believe Carspring could do a better job explaining what ‘soon’ means for each individual car and alerting the interested buyer as soon as the car has become available.

Getting started, what’s the process like (2)? – I look at the product page for a 2012 Fiat 500, I’m presented with a rather large image of this car and a sticky footer encouraging the user to click on ‘buy’ or ‘finance’. There’s something to say for keeping the product page simple for the user to navigate, but the large picture and the footer feel quite overwhelming. As a result of the large image and the sticky footer, it’s not immediately apparent to me that this is a carousel which lets me see one more picture, that of the car’s dashboard. Having thumbnail images of the car e.g. its interior and exterior below the hero image would be more intuitive.

I like how Roadster does its product pages, providing all relevant information at a fingertip. To be fair, the product page contains the same info that Roadster offers, but purely because of the way this detail has been laid out I feel I have to work harder to get to this information before deciding to buy the car.

Getting started, what’s the process like (3)? – The filtering function on Carspring works well; the filtering options are clear and I can see at a glance the number of available cars per filter. However, because the supply of certain makes and models is still relatively small, filtering and sorting doesn’t feel as helpful as it could have been if there had been a larger number of cars on offer. For example, when looking at BMWs I started with 7 models and finished with 2 cars after I’d done all my filtering.

Getting started, what’s the process like (4)? – Given that Carspring is a two sided marketplace it’s just as important that the seller of a car has a good experience. For me, Carspring’s biggest differentiator is that it inspects and grades your car. As a buyer, this gives me confidence about the quality of the car that I’m buying. As a seller, the process needs to be transparent and this will come from Carspring inspecting and grading your car upfront, providing sellers with a guaranteed sale price.

How does Carspring compare to similar services? – Carspring does feel very similar to its US counterparts in the aforementioned Shift, Carvana, Beepi and Vroom. The points of differentiation between the various used car marketplaces seem minimal. For example, Vroom offers a 7-day money back guarantee and Beepi does the same within 10 days. What I liked about Beepi is the ability for the consumer to get in touch with person who’s certified the car in question.

Did the site deliver on my expectations? – Yes. I can see Carspring’s model scaling rapidly, and I expect to see their car offering expand very quickly. The site lets users down in some places with usability issues that could be fixed fairly easily. I believe that the ultimate success of using Carspring won’t necessarily lie in the site’s experience, but will depend on the quality of the car delivered to a user’s doorstep. This ‘offline’ experience will determine whether people will come back to Carspring to buy their next used car and spread the word to their friends.

Having looked at a range of marketplaces, most recently in the events space, I widened my search and came across YunoJuno. YunoJuno is an online marketplace which describes itself as “an all-in-one platform to find, book and manage the best freelancers in town.” I’m keen to understand how YunoJuno is different from a standard job site.

My quick summary before using the app – I expect something similar to “Odesk” (now Upwork) which is a well-known site for finding freelance developers. Whether I’m an employer or a freelancer, it ought be straightforward to find either people or jobs.

How does YunoJuno explain itself in the first minute? – At first glance it becomes clear that YunoJuno’s main mission is to connect the best freelancers with employers looking for high quality people. It made me wonder whether the platform focuses on specific skills and experience levels or whether it’s a one-stop shop for a wide variety of roles, disciplines and experience levels.

Getting started, what’s the process like (1) – I’m on YunoJuno’s iOS app and decide to join YunoJuno as a freelancer. I click on “join as a freelancer” (see Fig. 1 below) and am presented with short sign up form (see Fig. 2 below). I’m disappointed to see that “product management” – my discipline – isn’t in the dropdown list. Although I appreciate that product management probably isn’t as established a contractor discipline as project management or photography, I’m still worried about employers finding my profile now that I’ve had to selected “Other” as my discipline. I feel that these concerns are justified when I then then log in to YunoJuno on my desktop to edit my profile to see that “Designer” is listed as my discipline … (see Fig. 3 below).

Fig. 1 – Screenshot of the landing screen of the YunoJuno iOS app

Fig. 2 – Screenshot of the freelancer signup form on the YunoJuno iOS app

Fig. 3 – Screenshot of my profile page on desktop

The remainder of the process feels very straightforward; from uploading my image to highlighting my key strengths. For some reason I seem to have missed completing my recent employment history so despite thinking I’m ready submit my application, I’m gently reminded that I still need to put in my work history (see Fig. 3 below).

Fig. 4 – Reminder to complete my work history in order to submit my application

Getting started, what’s the process like (2) –As part of outlining my work history, I need to put in my 3 most recent jobs and put in referees for those jobs. This doesn’t feel an unreasonable request, but I do wonder whether my referees need to say how brilliant I am before I get accepted by YunoJuno!

What are the criteria for getting accepted by YunoJuno? When will I be able to see jobs or be contacted by employers? At this stage of the on boarding process I’m not clear about the process, and I would benefit from a better understanding about next steps. I can also imagine that some applicants might be hesitant to submit the names of a referee for a job that they’re still in (if they’re looking for their next gig). Not knowing how to best go about this, I decide to pause my application for now.

Fig. 5 – Screenshot of referee info on YunoJuno

How does YunoJuno compare to similar services? –YunoJuno feels very similar to the aforementioned Upwork, since both have a clear focus on making it easy as possible to find jobs as a freelancer. I could be wrong, but my perception is that the threshold for freelancers getting on the Upwork platform is lower than YunoJuno.

I was very delighted to see “product management” as a filter within Upwork. Disappointingly though, “Product Management Professionals & Consultants”(see Fig. 6 below) seemed to be exclusively populated by freelance developers.

From looking at other YunoJuno competitors, it was Toptal that felt the most similar to YunoJuno, as Toptal only offers experienced freelancers. The Toptal homepage states that it has the “top 3% of freelance talent” on its platform. The main difference with YunoJuno, however, is that it only focuses on developers and designers (see Fig. 7 below).

Fig. 7 – Screenshot of Toptal signup form

Did the app deliver on my expectations? – As I didn’t complete the application process its hard to say whether YunoJuno delivered on all my expectations, as I didn’t see any freelance jobs to explore. However, YunoJuno is a well designed responsive app and an experience that felt simple, but one that could benefit from more clarity about some of the steps involved.